Top prosecutor, state officials assassinated in Mexican border town

A top Mexican prosecutor and two others officials were assassinated late Wednesday, and another government official was hospitalized with gunshot wounds, during a street ambush in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, authorities said Thursday. File Photo by Miki Sarabiez/Shutterstock

NUEVO LAREDO , Mexico, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A top Mexican prosecutor and two state officials were assassinated Wednesday night, and another government official was wounded by gunfire, during what officials say was an ambush in the street.

"I regret and condemn the cowardly murders in Nuevo Laredo of the elements of the PGJ," Francisco Garcia Cabeza de Vaca, governor of Tamaulipas state, tweeted after the killings. "I express my condolences to their families."

Chavez and the other two victims were leaving a meeting at a government office Wednesday night when they were attacked by gunmen in the intersection, police said. A third official was hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Nuevo Laredo has a history of drug cartel-related violence, as several police chiefs have been targeted by criminals over the past decade. The fighting had cooled for a few years, but flared back up last year as shootouts occureed regularly between law enforcement and drug runners.